sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.In a board meeting on Monday, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) trustees backed a motion to write open letters to both the Ministry of Education and city’s medical officer of health to reinstate masking orders that expired in late March.The move comes following an April 5 Public Health Ontario report making a connection between the Omicron subvariant BA.2 and the potential for significant hospitalizations suggested Monday by the province’s medical officer.
COVID-19 in the classroom: Concerns linger as Ontario schools weather sixth wave “So it talks about optimizing layers of prevention in K (Kindergarten) to (grade) 12 schools, including temporary re-implementation of masking requirements indoors and improved air quality, can reduce the risk of in-school transmission and related disruption for students, families and and educational settings,” trustee and former chair Alex Johnstone said during the HWDSB meeting.Johnstone went on to say that she didn’t understand why the province and the city are not taking more steps to limit infections and suggested the board should take action.“We have a responsibility to ensure that we have educators in our classrooms, so from the ability to operationalize alone, we need to be looking at masking as an option, just so we can continue to keep our schools open, which is our first priority.”Earlier in the day, Dr.